Saturday, October 11, 2014

Decades-old CIA crack-cocaine scandal gains new momentum

Nearly two decades after a US reporter was humiliated for connecting
the CIA to a drug-trafficking trade that funded the Nicaraguan Contras,
important players in the scandal – which led to the journalist’s suicide
– are coming forward to back his claims.

Reuters / Ricardo Moraes

Back in 1996, Gary Webb
of the San Jose Mercury News broke a story stating not only that
the Nicaraguan Contras – supported by the United States in a
rebellion against their left-leaning government – were involved
in the US crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, but also that the
CIA knew and turned a blind eye to the operation.

As a result, Webb concluded, the CIA was complicit in a drug
trade that was wreaking havoc on African American communities in
Los Angeles.

The bombshell report sparked outrage across the country, but when
national newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, New York Times,
and Washington Post weighed in on the matter, they dismissed Webb
and attacked his story to the point that it was disowned by the
Mercury News. Webb was forced out of journalism and ultimately
committed suicide in 2004.

Now, however, the whole ordeal is being looked at with fresh eyes
in the form of two new films: “Kill the Messenger” and a
documentary called, “Freeway: Crack in the System.” Additionally,
several figures involved in the operation have recently spoken
out, lending further credibility to Webb’s original reporting.

Coral Baca, who had a close relationship with prominent
Nicaraguan drug dealer Rafael Cornejo, told the Huffington Post that she remembered numerous
occasions in which she meet Contra leader Adolfo Calero near San
Francisco. During these meetings, she said Calero handled bags
full of money, and he clearly knew that money was made through
the drug trade.

“If he was stupid and had a lobotomy,” he might not have
realized, Baca added. “He knew exactly what it was. He didn't
care. He was there to fund the Contras, period.”

If true, the news would contradict multiple reports made by
national media outlets at the time, which doubted just how much
cash was going to the Contras – or even if the Contras knew it
was coming from crack cocaine sales.

Meanwhile, Nicaraguan drug importer Danilo Blandon recently
confirmed to documentary filmmaker Marc Levin that he was
involved in drug trafficking, and that he supported the Contras.
Back in 1996, Blandon was asked in court if he ran the LA drug
operation, which he confirmed. Then, too, he said all the profits
went to the Contras.

Despite a 1986 LA County arrest warrant detailing allegations
that Brandon “filtered” drug money to the Contras, other
newspapers dismissed Webb’s allegation that the Contras’ drug
trafficking operation directly impacted the increased use of
crack in the US – primarily, they said, because Blandon split off
from the group and ran his own drug venture.

Last year, though, former LA Times reporter Jesse Katz apologized
for attacking Webb’s story and reputation.

“As an L.A. Times reporter, we saw this series in the San
Jose Mercury News and kind of wonder[ed] how legit it was and
kind of put it under a microscope,” Katz said, according to
LA Weekly. “And we did it in a way that
most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on
that and say it was overkill. We had this huge team of people at
the L.A. Times and kind of piled on to one lone muckraker up in
Northern California.”

“We really didn't do anything to advance his work or
illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry
exercise. ... And it ruined that reporter's career.”

While Webb was also criticized for suggesting the CIA
intentionally devastated African American communities with crack,
he defended himself saying that was not the case.

“It’s not a situation where the government or the CIA sat
down and said, 'Okay, let’s invent crack, let’s sell it in black
neighborhoods, let’s decimate black America,’” Webb
reportedly says in the upcoming documentary. “It was a
situation where, 'We need money for a covert operation, the
quickest way to raise it is sell cocaine, you guys go sell it
somewhere, we don’t want to know anything about it.'”

Following the scandal, in 1998 the CIA quietly published an
internal inspector general’s report into the matter, which prior to its
release was much-touted for whitewashing the agency’s reputation.
Instead, it seemed to add legitimacy to the accusations, saying,
“CIA knowledge of allegations or information indicating that
organizations or individuals had been involved in drug
trafficking did not deter their use by CIA.” At other times,
the “CIA did not act to verify drug trafficking allegations
or information even when it had the opportunity to do so.”

“No information has been found to indicate that CIA informed
Congress of eight of the ten Contra-related individuals
concerning whom CIA had received drug trafficking allegations or
information,” the report added.

In a new post on Democracy Now, a transcript from the documentary “Shadows
of Liberty” reveals investigative journalist Robert Parry saying
this watchdog report was even more damning for the CIA than the
original story.

“The contents of the reports, if you go into the actual
nitty-gritty of them,” he said, “what you find is that
there was a serious problem, that the US government knew about,
and that the Contras were far more guilty of drug trafficking and
the CIA was more guilty of looking the other way than even Gary
Webb had suggested.”

Quotes

"There is beauty in truth, even if it's painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don't teach us anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything. Nor do they develop one's character, one's mind, one's heart or one's soul." Jose Harris

KnowingTest provides Independent News in blog format to assist other activists, teachers, and elders with alternative news, information on social issues, and research material.

FAIR USE NOTICE: Respecter.info (Website) may post copyrighted material not specifically authorized in accordance with Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law allowing purposes associating learning processes. Please be advised if you intend to use such copyrighted material for personal reasons beyond "fair use," considerations, please obtain permission from the copyright owner. Learning processes encompass a vast array of issues of concern and would not be restrictive, it would offer critique and extended scholarly research. Blog Guidelines

Website may display third party authors/advertising which may not represent the views or opinions of Website or contributors. Advertisements are not endorsed as such and are intended as alternative ways to support the work at Website. You may contact webmaster at our main site ExtraSensory.News.